An Old Master Emerges From the GrimeRecently, decades after acquiring it in 1949, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York decided to thoroughly clean the circa 1630s painting Portrait of a Man of its multiple layers of darkened varnish and paint from bad retouching (additions made centuries later to make the canvas look more old-masterish and entice buyers). What they found confirmed what they'd long suspected — it was painted by Velázquez. An exciting story of detective work in the art restoration world.

Picture Show: Places of EducationA slide show featuring images from photographer Lissa Rivera's project Places of Education — an inside glimpse of public and private schools, universities, Greek societies, and community colleges in Massachusetts, focusing on the interiors of buildings themselves rather than the students. Via Good.

Fairy Tales Have an Ancient OriginSeeking to trace the origin of various folk tales, Dr Jamie Tehrani, a cultural anthropologist at Durham University, studied 35 versions of Little Red Riding Hood from around the world. Adopting techniques used by biologists to create the taxonomic tree of life, which shows how every species comes from a common ancestor, Dr. Tehrani discovered that the tale, believed to have originated in France around the 17th century, actually shares a common ancestor dating back more than 2,600 years, with variants found all around the world. Via The Telegraph.

Reading the LandscapeMargaret Drabble picks her top ten literary landscapes. She writes, "...walking in the footsteps of great writers, and seeing landscapes and buildings through their eyes is one of the most enjoyable and sustaining of pleasures."